Currently, in all dental implantation procedures drilling is performed using motor-driven drilling. Motor-driven drilling has certain advantages, such as fast and less labor demanding, however, it also has various drawbacks. For example, in the process of preparing dental implantation, drilling is frequently made on a location which has very thin bones. Since motor-driven drilling causes vibrations, at the area where bone is very thin it tends to cause cracking of the bone and renders implantation impossible. Furthermore, motor-driven drilling provides one directional drilling, i.e., clockwise, which generates more pressure on the surrounding bone, hence, this also poses a higher risk of bone cracking, as well as causes more trauma to the patient. Consequently, in some areas or situations implantations have been considered not permissible because of the risks associated with the drilling.
Furthermore, because of the high speed and the vibration of motor-driven drilling, it requires substantial skills and experiences in proper control of the angulation of drilling. Often, a correction of drilling angulation needs to be made when the bore generated is not precisely in the required angulation, particularly in an area, such as at the front of the mouth, where a high precision is required. Additionally, using motor-driven drilling, the dentists have a limited tactile sensation about the surrounding bone structures in the process of drilling. Clinically, a commonly seen accident is the drill penetrating into the sinus, the floor of the nose, or bone cortex (outer layer of bone) in the preparation process for implantation in the upper jaw of the patient.
Moreover, motor-driven drilling generates heat, therefore, water cooling of the drill and the bore is required. This is typically done using an irrigation device adjacent to the drill. With irrigation, frequently the cooling water is accumulated in the patient's throat, the surgical procedure has to be stopped until the patient clears his throat. This interrupts the process and can be dangerous during drilling. Moreover, the cooling water also causes a further disturbance of the wound.
On the other hand, it has been found in the recent years that the bone tissue collected from the threads of the implant drills immediately after the drilling can be used to enhance bone regeneration around the implant. Typically, the dentist collects the bone tissue from the threads of the implant drills used in drilling, after the implant is placed inside the bore, the collected bone tissue is placed around the implant before suturing the wound. However, in the presence of irrigation, the bone tissue collected is washed by the cooling water. Typically, a dentist harvests bone tissue using a bone trap connected to a suction hose, and sucks away the cooling water and collects bone tissue on a filter in the trap. Such a process can cause dehydration of the bone tissue, which affects the quality of the collected bone tissue, and bone regeneration surrounding the implant.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide improved tools and methods to solve the problems described above, and achieve a better precision and control of the dental implantation process. The present invention addresses this long felt need in the field.